As a conventional electronic component, an electronic component disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2012-79870 is known. FIG. 12 is an external oblique view of the electronic component 510 disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2012-79870. In FIG. 12, the direction of lamination will be defined as a y-axis direction. When the electronic component 510 is viewed in a plan view in the y-axis direction, the direction in which the long side of the electronic component 510 extends will be defined as an x-axis direction, and the direction in which the short side of the electronic component 510 extends will be defined as a z-axis direction.
The electronic component 510 is, for example, a laminated chip inductor including a laminate 512 and external electrodes 514a and 514b. The laminate 512 is in the form of a rectangular solid obtained by laminating a plurality of rectangular insulator layers in the y-axis direction. Accordingly, the end surfaces of the laminate 512 that are located on opposite sides in the x-axis direction, as well as the top and bottom surfaces located on the positive and negative sides, respectively, in the z-axis direction, are planes formed by a series of outer edges of the insulator layers.
Furthermore, the external electrode 514a is positioned in the laminate 512 along both the bottom surface on the negative side in the z-axis direction and the end surface on the negative side in the x-axis direction. The external electrode 514b is positioned in the laminate 512 along both the bottom surface on the negative side in the z-axis direction and the end surface on the positive side in the x-axis direction.
Incidentally, in the case of the electronic component 510 described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2012-79870, the laminate 512 might be cracked or chipped when the electronic component 510 is mounted on a circuit board. More specifically, when the electronic component 510 is produced, a plurality of large-sized ceramic green sheets are laminated to obtain a mother laminate, and the mother laminate is then cut into a plurality of laminates 512. Accordingly, the end, top, and bottom surfaces of the laminate 512 are formed by cutting the mother laminate. Therefore, depending on the accuracy of cutting the mother laminate, the parallel relationship between the top and bottom surfaces might become slightly impaired.
The external electrodes 514a and 514b are positioned in the bottom surface of the laminate 512, as mentioned earlier. On the other hand, when the electronic component 510 is mounted on the board, the top surface of the laminate 512 is sucked and held by a suction nozzle and then attached to the board. Therefore, in the case where the top and bottom surfaces are not parallel, when the suction nozzle contacts the top surface of the laminate 512, the suction nozzle presses a part of the top surface. As a result, the top surface of the laminate 512 might be cracked or chipped. In addition, if the laminate 512 is tilted by the top surface thereof being pressed in part by the suction nozzle, the bottom surface of the laminate 512 strongly contacts a land electrode of the circuit board on which the electronic component 510 is mounted. As a result, the bottom surface of the laminate 512 might be cracked or chipped.